Seán Canney (Galway East, Independent) | Oireachtas source

Something is missing here. If HIQA has a role in day care services, did it approve the current location? I have seen a citation from the grandson of one of the service users. On her first day at the new location, she rang him at 11 p.m., crying and asking to be brought home. There is something fundamentally wrong here. This day service was purpose-built as a day centre; it was not amalgamated with a nursing home. It has been open for only about ten years. It is a modern building and it had all the services that were needed. It was doing exactly what the Minister of State suggested day services should be doing, but what we have now is not right. The attitude and the communication in respect of all this is totally wrong.

Tomorrow at 11 a.m., old people will march in Loughrea. Something is fundamentally wrong when something like this is happening in this day and age. There is a great loss here that has to be rectified, and not by someone telling us what is going to happen in the future. It has to be resolved now. The Seven Springs day centre needs to open and if there are issues within the community nursing home, they need to be dealt with separately.

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